'An economic divide that is widening': Almost one third of Americans earning $150,000 a year or more say they're living paycheck to paycheck and many rely on credit cards to close the gap

I'm worried "paycheck to paycheck" is up to the interpretation of the person filing it the survey and how the questions are phrased. Depending on how the questions are worded, they'd possibly include me. My wife and I max our IRAs, 401ks, and HSAs each year. Anything that can be put on the credit card, is (then paid off before any interest can accrue). Like sure if you look at our monthly expenses vs income hitting the bank, we are "paycheck to paycheck". But we could both lose a significant portion of our income and be just fine (provided we scale back retirement savings).

Unless they address that in these articles or surveys, it just sounds like they're trying to get the poor and middle class to just agree to this shared misery while the rich keep fucking the world over.

If you're making 150k and are living paycheck to paycheck you either live in a crazy expensive area or are a total fucking idiot when it comes to managing your money.

Stop arguing if people making 150k a year should be fine.

It's the billionaires. Look at them.

I mean you can make any income be paycheck to paycheck by spending too much.

Don't let this sensational headline fool you. These are not the 1% not even close.

If you're making 150k per year and "living paycheck to paycheck" you suck with money, full stop.

That's more than double median household income

Famine, disease, collapse, or war. Those are historically the only ways inequality of anywhere near this level has been rectified.

I’d love to see this as a paycheck breakdown. Unless you have a history of debt, a huge house, or like 8 kids I don’t see how it’s not possible to do at least moderately well on 150k/y

Such a rusty axe head

Adam Smith observed in his epic that when people get more money they generally spend it on more/better housing. Today we have a few more luxury goods, to add to a house, but a house is still something people spend more and more money on when they get it.

I'm not sure that is bad. My dad died at 65 - what was the point of all the retirement savings he had saved up (at least my mom can enjoy it). Even if you live for much longer, most old people I know have failing bodies and so they can't really enjoy those old years. More and more my advice to people is save for a rainy day and an okay retirement, but don't save for a rich retirement - instead enjoy that difference now.

Welcome to the jungle fellas. How’s that trickle down working for you now?

That's because they're just passing a bunch of money around at the top.

All of them live in major cities and don't own property.

Permanently Deleted

The only way I could reasonably see that is if those people bought houses when rates went up. I live in a high cost of living area and $150k would not be living paycheck to paycheck for my family (wife, 2 kids, and a dog). I guess I also don't have expensive tastes.

Seeing this first hand between myself and some of my close coworkers who all earn similar incomes with similar sized families, I'd be willing to bet a majority of those 32% (who don't live in the bay area or Manhattan) are financially illiterate and live paycheck to paycheck because they blow all their money on stupid shit.

I still manage to save, pay my credit card off each month, and pay all the household bills while still having money for stupid hobbies and yearly vacations while they constantly take out loans, loans to pay for other loans, finance even small purchases, have multiple maxed out credit cards, and keep kicking the can down the road on paying off their 20 year old student loans. I'd have a little more sympathy if they didn't make snide comments like "must be nice" when I mention an upcoming trip, or argue that I'm stupid for upping my 401k contributions during our recent market dip while suggesting its better to sell it off when the market is down so you don't lose your money.

This is a completely unfair assessment. I make way less than that, and this is what results they get? Either they didn't try hard enough with more taking the test, or they are THAT financially tone deaf. Soo stupid

I make less than a third of that and make it work (barely). Some people need to seriously reassess their priorities or something.

Oh boo hoo. Try making about half that, like me and my wife do (combined). It isn’t fun.

I don't see how that's possible unless you have a huge family, you have some sort of chronic disease that insurance doesn't cover, or you're wildly irresponsible. Even in a high cost-of-living area, a normal family of four could live quite comfortably on that much money and still save some of it.

(I don't think that many high-earning people are wildly irresponsible. I suspect that this statistic isn't right.)

Boo hoo? I make a bit over half of half of that, and I'm getting by just fine. Maybe cut back on the avocado toast if you make 4x what I make and can't manage to live within those means.